Thompson touts new strategies for the city

Irving SilversteinComptroller William Thompson at the Staten Island Advance's Grasmere headquarters. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.--Comptroller William Thompson wants to stem the rising cost of living and doing business in the city, and explore giving more control to community boards and local officials as the next mayor of New York City.

Speaking to the Advance Editorial Board ahead of the first mayoral debate this week, the Democratic candidate positioned himself as a "man of the people" in contrast to billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and spoke about the difficult task of getting out a message when he's been outspent by his opponent by a factor of 16 to one.

"The issue that I'd like to be able to look back on -- after eight years -- is that I made it an easier city for middle class and working New Yorkers to be able to stay here, to be able live here, to be able to bring their families up here," Thompson said.

Thompson called ads by Bloomberg's campaign that attack the comptroller as a failure when he headed the now-defunct Board of Education as "incredible distortions" and "outright lies."

Thompson served as the president of the board from 1996 through 2001, under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. At that post, he said, he helped lay the foundation for success under Bloomberg, cutting principal tenure and changing the practice of local boards hiring them, curtailing social promotion by mandating summer school and pushed legislation giving the school chancellor more power.

"I'm proud of the record I had, it is unfortunate the mayor has chosen to distort that record now. It's kind of, 'I've got the money and I can spend it,'" Thompson said.

Mayoral control of schools works, Thompson added, though he would like to see parents have more involvement in the education process than they've had in the previous eight years and more focus on comprehension and critical thinking.

"I just think there has been this obsessive focus on standardized testing. It is a George Bush No Child Left Behind vision of education that right now does not serve our children well," he said.

The comptroller appears to agree with the mayor on other big issues the city will face in the coming years, but his plans to tackle them are quite different.

Both said they would convene a charter revision commission -- but whereas Bloomberg would seek ways to trim the fat in government, Thompson would seek ways to give local officials more authority. He would also consider decentralizing some of the larger agencies like the Department of Environmental Protection and believes the community boards should have more of a role in land use.

He used the incorporation of bicycle lanes on busy Island streets like Hylan Boulevard as an example of planning without community input.

"I think in the end the development that makes the most sense is the development that involves local communities," Thompson said.

And he won't get rid of the office of public advocate -- an idea Bloomberg strongly endorsed when he visited the Advance Editorial Board two weeks ago, and ignited a minor political firestorm.

Thompson also continued to hammer the mayor on another controversial issue: The extension of term limits last October.

"We shouldn't have been in this position. The law was clear. The only reason we are taking a third look at term limits is the mayor undercut democracy in this city and did what was in his own best interest," Thompson said.

To tackle a projected $5 billion deficit next year, Thompson would conduct a "top to bottom" review of agency spending to "determine what works and what doesn't work." Bloomberg's preference has been to make the same cuts across the board and place those decisions in the hands of his commissioners.

Thompson would add more lower-paid civilians to perform clerical work in the NYPD, and put those officers that currently do that work back on the street. He would eliminate no-bid contracts in the Department of Education and seek more federal dollars for Medicaid reimbursement.

As a "last resort" to balance the budget, Thompson said he would seek to raise income taxes by six-tenths of a percent on households with annual incomes of $500,000 or more and by one percent on households making $1 million-plus a year. Bloomberg has been opposed to the so-called "millionaire's tax" -- and so was Thompson at this time last year. But the comptroller said he changed his mind because "the financial conditions in the city have deteriorated considerably."

"The circumstances have changed, and that's why the outlook has changed," he explained.

Though Thompson believes anger over term limits still resonates across the city, in the end, he thinks pocketbook issues will bring people to the polls.

"People are worried about tomorrow and a lot of people are concerned this administration has not laid out a course that will lead this city in the right direction," he said.